Team Nigeria begins campaign at US taekwondo open

Team Nigeria will today kick-start their campaign to mount the podium at the 2017 World Taekwondo Federation (WTF)-sanctioned US Open as the quartet of Isah Adamu Abubakar, Usman Sulaiman, Edwin Samson and Saturday Bashir take to the mats.The athletes are all based in the United States with Abubakar and Sulaiman competing for honours in the men’s -58kg, Samson – 2015 African Games silver medallist will battle for the podium in the -63kg, while experienced Bashir battles for a medal in the 80kg.Having been drawn with their various opponents, Samson who was part of Team Nigeria to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers in Morocco said: “I think I am ready for this challenge. I have been hurting since I closely missed out on qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and I have started my preparations to make sure that Tokyo 2020 will be different.”Also former national champion, Bashir admitted that “the US taekwondo opens is a difficult tournament to win. So many fantastic fighters come from all over the world. I am excited to be in the mix of it all and fighting to win a place on the podium.”Apart from Team Nigeria, other African teams aiming for medals at the event include Niger Republic, Senegal, Egypt, Uganda and Cape Verde. The highest profile African competing at the event will be Niger Republic’s Abdoulrazak Alfaga, who won a Silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, a first Olympic medal for the tiny nation of Niger Republic, and he is currently the African Champion in the +87kg heavyweight category.Nigeria’s triple Olympian, Chika Chukwumerije, is also at the event to observe the performance of the Nigerians as well as assessment the growing strength of the African opposition, ahead of 2019 All African Games.Over 2464 Competitors registered for the 2017 USA Taekwondo Opens to participate in both the kyreougi and Poomsae events, which are categorised into kiddies, cadets and adults. Para-taekwondo will also feature at the event. The adult kyreougi event and para-taekwondo event have a G-1 ranking status from the World Taekwondo Federation.